Flame of Passion
by Lady Matrix
Summary: Rei Hino, the beautiful Shinto regarded as an unfeeling witch. But beneath that emotionless mask, lies the sorrow of a girl robbed of a family, of a true home, and love. And now, she ventures to find her true self... through a fellow human's eyes.


__Title: Flame of Passion

Author's Notes: Disclaimer: The usual. Naoko Takeuchi owns Sailor Moon in its entirety. If you don't feel like getting depressed, or but a damper on your bright mood, I suggest you leave. Though this fic does offer a bright side near the end, the middle parts are a bit too sad.

Additionally, I've tried to stay close to canon with this story, but I'm not sure if that happened. -; Well, any way...

Here ya go.

–__

_ "You shall come no nearer."_

_ The world, for that moment, had stopped. It preserved in its folds of memories, the image of a young woman, standing in defense in front of a young child. To whom the young mother showed malice to wasn't known to the elementary-aged girl, whose wide purple eyes pleaded for her parent to stop her akimbo stance and eat dinner with her at the table. Yet her mother could not see the look of panic in her offspring's eyes as she busied herself with fighting the invisible force that had dared enter their home._

_ The young girl planted her feet firmly on the tile of the dining room, and walked towards her mother, a hand outstretched. "Mama...?"_

_ Once her fingers had caressed the older female's gracefully arched back, a sudden shock of red and orange began to consume the satin fabric of the Defender. Soon the fire consumed the young parent's legs, moving slowly upwards to send its nasty appetite to devour the carefully carved face of the black-haired woman..._

_ Young purple eyes flickered. And suddenly the girl-child remembered what she was entitled to doing. She screamed._

–

Rei Hino awoke not to the screeching of her alarm clock, but to her own inane shrieking. Noticing the nerve-ending sound was erupting from her very own being, two delicate hands fluttered to blockade the cavern of chaotic noise. She gulped down any stray screams and looked around at her surroundings, and noticed she was safe in the confines of her room at Hiwaka Shrine. And, she then noticed with much relief, as she glanced at the vanity mirror across the room, she was not trapped in the ten year old body she had once inhabited.

However, the dream she had been fated to receive seemed very real; the crazed bellowing of her mother, the turbulence that had been there that fateful day in the kitchen... even the touch of the flame had seemed to be a horrific reality. The teenaged girl rubbed her hands carefully against each other, half-expecting to feel the painful sensation of an unhealed burn. But she felt nothing besides the rough calluses she had developed from the recent archery practices she had been undertaking.

Despite herself, all Rei could admit to the room's closed environment aloud was that the nightmare had been a "weird one". She didn't allow the adjectives she thought truly described the dream, (terrifying, heart-wrenching, and depressing), to spew from her lips and become part of this world's reality.

Trying to direct her train of thoughts to dwell on something other than her mind's nocturnal whirrings, she shuffled to the adjacent wall and found that day's date. April 17th. She smiled wryly, shaking her head. As of that moment she could consider herself a bonafide fifteen year old. She stretched her arms, jerking the set this way and that, sending them a wake-up call of their own. "April 17th. April 17th... another year has passed by since the last time we've met," she murmured, running a hand through her long raven locks. She wasn't quite sure if the correct reaction to this thought was to smile, to congratulate herself for ascending through another year, completely free of his presence, or to frown, knowing that April 17th always brought forth a set of events she hoped to skip in its entirety. As she always did when at a crossroads, Rei Hino sighed and shrugged, knowing that the answer would present itself promptly that day. When she was forced, once again, to face the man whom she was cursed to call "Father".

–

"Ms. Rei! Ms. Rei!"

The girl with the raven locks turned around, arching an eyebrow at the one who addressed her. Whom she found standing rather awkwardly before her was someone she, with all of her being, was displeased to see. Another love sick boy delivering presents to her on, what they thought, she considered an important day.

"I... I heard it was your birthday," the young male seemed flustered here, seeing the way Rei's eyes seemed to narrow at these words, "well, I mean, my sister goes to T.A. Academy too, and she told me that..."

The young High Schooler tilted her head to the side, a cruel smile playing at her lips, "Ah, and you decided that you would romance me by giving me a present?" Suddenly, the amusement exited from the purple eyes of the girl, giving way to a cold hardness that served its purpose by frightening the boy to no end, "Well, I have news for you. I'm not impressed by any little boys who are desperate and immature enough to _stalk_ me. I _hate_ people who go behind other's backs to gather the information they need to gain their under-handed goals. So," here she paused, almost too pleased with the way the young male's hazel eyes showed both shock and embarrassment, "I suggest that you leave."

The boy obliged, almost too pleased to leave the sidewalk from which he fell victim to one of Rei Hino's many snappy, head-spinning speeches. The girl raised her eyebrows, and picked a piece of lint off her skirt. Just another day. Just another usual birthday disappointment. For the boy and for her.

"Wow, Rei! That was COLD!"

The girl spun on her heel, her ebony 'do encircling her form for one moment, before settling to its usual place–lightly making contact with its mistress's straight back.

The one who had provided the comment, was someone that Rei had preferred to remain ignorant of her bitter and concise treatment of the opposite sex. Someone who bubbled constantly of the various virtues of that week's crush. Someone who Rei knew would never be able to comprehend the full magnitude of the young Shinto's lifestyle. Someone whose name was Usagi Tsukino.

"Usagi," she acknowledged curtly.

The blonde bounced over to her friend, unaware of the rather rigid stance provided to the bunny-girl's prancing. "So, Rei," she began, a playful grin ready to be launched into existence, "who was that boy? He seemed ready to profess his undying love for you and you just _blew him off_!"

Through clenched teeth, Rei muttered, "Well, I don't have the time nor the patience to deal with silly little boys who think they're ready to handle someone like me." She shifted her book bag to her other hand, just realizing that her the most kinesthetic parts of her body had, like every other part of her form, tensed at the appearance of the one Rei fondly called Odango Atama.

Usagi seemed not to notice the lack of patience that was presented before her. Instead, she noted, "And it's your birthday." her blue eyes flashed malevolently. "And you didn't tell us."

Rei groaned, knowing "Us" referred to Usagi, as well as Ami Mizuno and Makoto Kino. All of whom would give her the third degree, whether verbally or otherwise, demanding to know why they had not been privy to the speciality of that day's date.

"It's nothing, Usagi. Really."

The blonde was not convinced, nor ready to give up on her newly found campaign.

"Yes, it is Rei! On this day fifteen years ago, you popped out of your mother's belly and became the infamous Rei Hino! The mysterious caretaker of Hiwaka Shrine! The beauty of T.A. Academy, the breaker of boys' hearts!" The proclamation was said in such a dramatic tone of voice, and accompanied with such extravagant hand gestures, that the black-haired girl could barely stifle the giggle worming its way up her throat. Instead, she waved a hand at Usagi, and snapped, "Yeah, yeah. Just keep it down would ya?! I don't need more fans like psycho boy."

Usagi smiled, pleased with having worn the Martian Senshi down. Whining did have its rewards. "Now you have to go to my house and we'll throw you a birthday party!"

Rei's loafer-clad feet shuffled. _If only I could_. "Sorry. I already have plans."

Usagi leaned in closer to view the details of her companion's sharp purple eyes, searching for the truth. "And what would those plans be? Toasting birthday weenies in the Great Fire?"

The priestess-in-training seemed to seethe with almost uncontainable rage. "For your information Baka, the Great Fire is for readings ONLY... and I don't dine on such uncultured foods like your everyday hot dog." she snorted, "Besides, I really have to meet someone."

"What? A date with that stalker guy?"

"No. A night on the town with that guy would have been a lot more bearable than what I am about to be subjected to experiencing."

"That's too bad... no weenie roast for you then."

–

Rei stared out of the window she sat by, watching the people of Tokyo rush around to meet the ever trivial appointments that seemed to construct their lives. 'How am I any different? I'm on one of those pointless appointments. One that has forever been construed into my yearly agenda. A bland set of circumstances that will get me nowhere... and improve nothing.'

"Rei, dear, your Minostroni Soup is getting cold."

_I am cold..._

Purple eyes flickered in recognition. She stared at the man that sat across the table from her, a smile implanted, eternally it seemed, on his lips. If one didn't know him better, they might think that Politician Hino was a happy, ever cheerful man. But Rei knew better. She did not suffer from a state of blissful ignorance the voters of Japan had been lulled into. _Save your smiles and promises for your politics, Dad._

"Do you want to get a new bowl of soup? Maybe that's too cold for your liking."

_No Dad, the soup's just fine. You're the one that's too cold for my liking_.

Rei shook her head. "No thank you. I'd rather move on to the main course." _The sooner I consume this fowl garbage, the faster I can leave..._

Koichi Hino smiled across the table at his daughter. Every year, when he could afford to take a break from all of the work that accompanied his governmental title, he would come back to Osaka to find that his offspring was becoming increasingly beautiful, and left with the knowledge that soon... she would begin to rival even the late Meiko Hino's seemingly unsurpassed physical standings.

The center of the duo's meal came and went, and soon it was time for the two to part and wait for next year's required meeting. Yet, despite her usual anxiety to evacuate the table, and have her male parent make a hasty retreat from her own life, Rei off-handedly commented, "Surprised you made it all the way through the meal."

Either Koichi didn't know, or he chose to ignore it, but the sentence was said with a most vile tone of voice. He grinned. "Yes. I'm a bit on the shocked side too," he mused aloud, "I remember when your mom was still alive, and I didn't have to wait for the buzz and ring of my cell phone..."

The present male's baritone voice seemed to dull out suddenly. The words ceased to transpire in the young maiden's mind after the phrase, _when your mother was alive..._

_"You shall come no nearer!"_ The memory seemed to flicker through Rei's mind suddenly, granting Rei another glimpse of the scene, the very Finale, of her mother's short-lived life.

The deafening panic that surged through her body contradicted the just audible enough hiss that followed, "Yes. That's right, Father. Back then, you only had to worry about the beeping of your pager." she said it in a calm, even tone of voice that pronounced the even more passionate burning occurring within her eyes. "Couldn't afford that flashy new cell phone of your's yet, could you?"

The politician's trip down memory lane, already so dusty and dirt-strewn, ended with a dull thud. "Come again?"

_I hope never to do that... _Rei arose from her place within the restaurant, a facility which catered to the best, brightest, and most beautiful of Japan... a world of her Father's. A world, Rei had always known, that she held no apparent place in.

"I must go now Hino-san... many things to attend to back at the Shrine." but by the time the young Hino had informed her sordid companion of her quickly planned exit, the older Hino was already on his cell phone, providing "Mmmhmm"s and "I'll be right there"s to the invisible caller. Rei then knew that her Father would forever be deaf to her, only possessing the ability of hearing the voice rattling to him on his consistently busy phone line, beckoning him to come back to his duty. A duty, Rei sadly noted, that Koichi found far more important than his most primary. His duty as a care-taker of a fellow human soul; his duty as a father.

–

The shrine maiden, somehow, managed to arrive at the temple premises before darkness had completely cloaked the fast approaching night sky. She entered through the side entrance, her tired feet taking solace from the touch of the straw-covered ground. She swayed slightly, her feet aching from the hour trip across the whole district of Osaka. Sorrowfully, she had forgotten all of her money, neatly tucked in her purse, somewhere in her closet; and out of inherited pride, had refused to request taxi-fare from her Father.

"I'm home, Grandpa," her voice croaked tiredly. She stumbled through the halls, hoping that she'd find her Grandpa, her sole, true guardian, fast asleep, his snores reigning supreme over all the other nighttime noises. To her utter disappointment, the old Shrine Caretaker sat on his mat, staring at her intently. "Rei, how was dinner with your Father?"

Rei's lips formed into a ruler-edge line, the corners of her mouth tugging at them into submission. Knowing she was more likely to spew forth her absent father's praises, than for her Grandfather to back down from his inquiry, she muttered, "As pointless as ever." She groaned, noticing the disapproving glint that passed through her grandpa's usually kind eyes. "Grandpa, please don't look at me like that. You know as well as I do, that I've just wasted a whole _three hours_ with that man. I could've been back here helping you. Saturday is a pique day, and that man is _selfish_ enough to–"

"For your information, my fire sprite, I did just fine without you today. So don't even worry about that." he looked at her here, vying for her understanding on his following words, "and you know as well as I do that he just wanted to celebrate this day, this glorious day, with his one and only daughter."

"It's funny how everyone puts so much importance into my birthday than I do. And it's so funny how everyone _forgets_ what else happened this day, five years ago."

The elder man held up a hand to stop the ignited speech of his granddaughter. "I did not forget. I closed down the Shrine today... and I visited the cemetery while you were gone." 

Rei's purple eyes seemed impassive for a minute, when she looked to the slightly open back door of the shrine. From there she saw a new bouquet of red roses resting on a protruding mound of dirt. She nodded. "You sleep, Grandpa. This'll be another late night for me."

"Isn't it always, my dear Rei?"

The black-haired teenager did not respond to the question but found herself wandering to her room to gather one thing before visiting the backyard, (the Okadas' so-called cemetery), the memories of a young woman, a wife and a mother, calling to her. That night, on April 17th, was the sole day of the year that allowed the caverns of times long past to open up for Rei Hino. The one time of the year that was not a time for celebrating, but a time for mourning. Five years ago to that very hour, horrendous cries had filled the calm air of Tokyo, and a fire had engulfed a house in what was once considered a safe, respectable neighborhood.

The aged man stared as his granddaughter made a detour to her own room, to gather her own respectable set of flowers, and his mind wandered to a time when he had first been introduced to the little boarder with the enormous temper. The girl with the sorrow most could not even hope to fathom...

Five years ago, Keitaro Okada had been sweeping the uppermost steps of Hiwaka Shrine, whistling his favorite Japanese tune. He heard the peel of a car driving away, and when he looked over the horizon, down past the one hundred steps it took to reach the shrine, he saw a small girl standing still, a small suitcase within her grip, watching the black Rolls Royce speed away. After what seemed an eternity, the girl's ankles twitched, and she made a move to climb the stone steps. Keitaro found support by leaning against his straw broom, awaiting for the little girl to make her way before him.

Five minutes passed, and an eerily calm Hino Rei stood before the caretaker. He beamed at her, clapping a hand on his daughter's own offspring's shoulder. He found that his touch was met with apprehension and a flinch. "Rei... to what do I owe this visit? And on your birthday, as well!"

"I'm moving in with you."

The old man gave a chuckle, suspecting that a runaway now stood before him. "I doubt your mother would appreciate that, young one."

"What...?" Hazed-over purple eyes flickered, an action instinctive to her. She blinked, surveying her relative. Did he really not know...? Did they truly leave him ignorant in such a dire situation? "Did he not call you?"

"Who, my dear?"

"Father. He was supposed to tell you that, that mama..."

The elder's muscles tensed suddenly, some sense of his, be it a sixth or not, telling him something was quite off; that Fate had done something to forever change the life of his lovely Meiko...

"Mama is dead, Grandpa."

Brown eyes went wide, silence suddenly the only element crowding around the two. The cry of the crows seared through the thick cloak of quiet, and Keitaro joined the cry, his sobs filling the serene environment's air, mingling with any other sobs that may have been sent to adjoin the nighttime sky.

As brown eyes watered down, violet orbs resorted to looking impassive, not subjected to the desperate pleas for God to bring back a daughter, a wife, and a mother. She looked on into the vacant black sky, wondering how long it took for scars to heal. And she cursed the man who left the scene of the death untainted, unmarred by the sight of his wife's limp body. He had worn a forlorn look earlier that night, but young Rei had suspected that the man was running funeral expenses through his head, inwardly groaning at the expensive figures unfurling in his psyche. He may have felt sorrow, but not much. Not much at all.

The pain-wracked sobs seemed to wither away after a while, as did the old man's resolve of living a happy life. Through red-rimmed eyes, he stared at Meiko's sole heir, and wondered why the young girl did not fall under the pressure of the information. Why she didn't tremble from the very thought that her mother would no longer enfold her into a warm embrace, that she would no longer be there at all; Keitaro did not know. He felt quite frightened of the young one in front of him–feeling the arctic chill that made up the ten year old's exterior. "Shouldn't you–shouldn't you be with your Father at this time?"

"He doesn't understand , Grandpa. And he never will."

"Rei... he lost a wife tonight, you need to be there to support him."

"He'll get that support from one of his other women."

Keitaro blinked. "What?"

She shook her head, making her long black mane shake with it. "Nothing. But if he really wanted me around, I'd still be in that car with him. And you know it."

Keitaro, at the time, had been ignorant of how many "you know it"s would continue to flow from his granddaughter's lips venomously. The Japanese girl would always expect him to know everything, assuming him to be well-versed about the negative traits that made up her father's 'evil' personality.

"Come inside, Grandpa. It's getting cold. I'll make you some tea."

The girl had begun to stride into the main shrine, back straight, shoulders arched. Appearing regal–appearing like the princess the population around her had always imagined Rei to become. And like one of such dignified descent, she made her eyes be free of tears, and her heart to harbor the leftover pain that could not, would not, be shown to the world.

The aged male closed his eyes, halting his painful reminisces of that day. He stared off into the backyard, finding that Rei had knelt down beside the grave that held the body of her mother. Accompanying the roses Keitaro had placed on the mini-hill was now one large Casablanca.

Muted words flew from the girl's lips, mumbles that Keitaro was not able to understand, nor authorized to ask about. The elder sighed and fell back against his low bed, allowing sleep to claim him. He was jettisoned into the land of the unconscious so fast, that he did not notice a pair of violet eyes glance at him, verifying the man's slumbering state. Only then, did Rei Hino allow the tears to fall.

–

"Hino-san, please tell me the answer to Number twenty-two on the weekend assignment."

A dozing head suddenly popped up from the mahogany desk it had been resting upon, bemused pupils dilating this and way that. Rei sent a tired gaze towards the whiteboard, where an impatient Aogiri-sensei awaited. "Um... cosine of five?" she replied in a voice that suggested her own skepticism on the answer.

Aogiri-Sensei glared at her usually attentive student. "Very funny, Hino-san. The correct answer is Hiroshima."

_I was so caught up with everything this weekend... I can't believe I forgot to do my homework..._

Rei blushed profusely as giggles alighted the classroom, mocking the queen of the ninth grade. As the bell rang and dismissed the students from their furnished prisons, a bright smile interrupted Rei's trek down towards the lunchroom. A smile belonging to Akina Misao, local busybody of T.A. Academy. "So, Rei-san," the voice that accompanied the smile queried, "what are you wearing to the Father-Daughter dance next week?"

Rei felt the inside of her mouth turn dry, dehydrated of any witty remarks she could possibly make. She was about to provide a gruff, "Please get out of my way", when a voice bellowed, "Akina-san! There you are! Been looking everywhere for you!"

Both Rei and Akina stared as a muscle-bound girl trudged over to them–none other than Yuki Yutori, captain of the girl's tennis team, currently facing some [not too far-fetched] accusations of steroid-use. _Good, maybe she'll drag Akina away to practice serves or something... I can only hope a tennis ball makes a fatal hit to her head._

Yuki took Akina by the shoulder and said in a voice meant to be discreet, but was otherwise, "Akina, man! Was that ever the wrong question to ask her! Didn't you know?! Our dear 'Ms. Rei' is an orphan!"

Akina's green eyes sparkled at the new scrap of gossip, surprised that she hadn't known such interesting information.

Rei stood in the middle of the hallway, rooted to the spot by her Mary Jane's. "I'm not an orphan," she proclaimed softly. A rather rough definition of 'orphan' suddenly passed through her brain... 'an orphan is a child whose parents are dead.' Her purple eyes suddenly turned stone-like. _The rumors are true then. I am an orphan. Both my parents are dead to me. _

She fished her address book from her school bag and headed to the other end of the school. It was time that she called someone who understood.

–

"That was a nice surprise when you called me today, Rei. It's always nice to have someone here when my mother works the night shifts." A blue-haired girl extended a can of soda towards her raven-haired companion, but Rei shook her head. "No thanks, Ami-chan. And I'm the one in need of some companionship, anyway."

Ami Mizuno smiled at her friend, knowing that sooner or later the Shinto would provide the true reason she had wished to see her. People like Hino Rei had other priorities, so to take a break from the usual humdrum schedule of normal life, the provided reason must be one of great importance.

The duo sat on the roof of one of Tokyo's most expensive, high class apartments. Rei stared off into the Tokyo sky, its stars blotted out because of all the neon lights emitting from below. She felt the wind rustle her hair, its spine-tingling touch comforting. At these times of night, she could usually be found at the small patio they had at the shrine, trying to name all of the stars in the constellations that soared high above. But now she now found herself not alone, but with a friend who carried with her the smarts, experiences, and overall ability, to possibly decipher Rei's rather cryptic attitude towards life.

"So... what's new, Rei-chan?"

In a hurried mumble, Rei spat, "Nothing at all." but knew that the lie did not have the desired effect on her fellow sailor soldier.

Ami glanced at her friend. Rei had curled up into a ball, a defensive stance Ami knew all too well. That position one took to block everything out–to defend themselves from the world and its harsh reality. It protected the user from every sore bite and sting... but by being so cautious of everything, it seemed the only thing the user would be able to accomplish... is to experience nothing. Through her duties as a sailor senshi, Ami had been introduced to this new concept. This concept of living life, despite its pitfalls.

The two became silent for a while, staring down into the jungle that was the city of Tokyo. Down there, little dots wandered around, living their lives in their own styles. They looked ghastly under the glow of all the bright lights and signs, demons all on their own. "And we protect them..." Rei murmured. _But who will protect the protectors? Who will guard us against all of the trials we encounter? Why are we depended upon so much, that people are sure we won't crack from under all the pressure? That we remain sane after all the disturbing things we see. _She thought back to her mother for a minute, fishing the imagery of her mother being consumed by the flames she now utilized as her own power. And a sudden framed image of her father, who was supposed to nourish her after the untimely death of his spouse, came into her mind's eye. The face sighed, its eyes a cold mahogany. It showed no sign of real remorse, as it stared down into the coffin of the woman who had worn the name of 'Hino' like a burden for the past eleven years. And now she was at rest. Yet Father and Daughter were not.

"Ami, where's your father right now? You told me once that your mom and dad were divorced, but you never did tell me where he went off to."

Navy-blue eyes blinked in a rather surprised confusion, but the owner finally answered, "In the woods somewhere. In his studio, painting, I suppose."

Rei, still looking straight ahead at a business building, muttered, "Is that why he left you and your mom? Because of a bunch of canvases and watercolors?"

The rather rough comment was met by a suppressed chuckle, and Rei finally tore her eyes away from the Tokyo skyline to stare at her blue-haired companion. Did her friend see humor in her father's absence? Or did she try to cover the hidden sorrow she felt with unjustifiable laughs, just as Rei did with her sneers?

"Oh, Rei-chan! It goes so much deeper than that!"

"What... do you mean?"

Ami adjusted her current sitting position, so that her long legs were cris-crossed over each other, forming the aptly called, "Indian position". She smiled, settling her elbows on her legs, her head cradled in her hands. "My Dad... he was an intelligent man." she smiled suddenly, the memory of her Father granting a true look of affection to cross her solemn face. Rei, in a way that she could not understand, envied the memories Ami seemed to share with her parent. Memories that Rei was deemed unworthy to have, it seemed.

"He didn't leave us just for his art. He wasn't foolish as all that. He left us... for our own inspired benefits, as he put it." she coughed, "Well, believe me... at first I thought he was the most selfish, inconsiderate man out there. But as I grew up, I finally understood from every carefully-crafted postcard he sent, trying to make me see why I had one parent instead of two. If he had stayed, he would be miserable. In turn, my mother and I would be miserable. After all, my dad's philosophy always seemed to be, 'whoever is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others'. That was my father in his entirety. He diminished the pain my mother and I would have felt... and now he rids this world of misery bit by bit with his paintings."

"So you're Dad left to play super hero. Is that what you're saying?"

Ami sighed. "Rei-chan, I don't think you're getting the message behind the story."

"That your Dad's a complete, and utter selfish A-Hole like mine? No, I get that much."

With the insult hanging limply in the air, Ami shuffled her slipper-covered feet, uncomfortable with how the night seemed to be turning out. "Rei... please don't talk about my dad like that. I just don't think you understand, that, though someone isn't _physically _there, the spirit of their love will always be with you."

Rei laughed, a dead tone to her giggle. "I guess you'd think that. He sends you two postcards every month, right? Hand-crafted and painted himself?"

A nod.

"Well, Ami," and she stood, rising to her full stature, her dark eyes glowering, "my Father can't even call me up himself every quarter of the YEAR! He always gets one of his _freaking_ _assistants, for crying out loud_, to dial up my private line and let me know that he's still alive. But you know WHAT?! I know that blasted man is alive because I read! Because I watch the News! He kisses little babies he doesn't even know for publicity, while he can't even give his own flesh and blood a passing glance! WHAT DOES THAT TELL YOU ABOUT THE SPIRIT OF LOVE, AMI?! WHAT DOES IT FREAKING TELL YOU?!" Heavy breathing soon followed the statement, the young woman ending with a flourish and a frown, and scattered tears flowing down her hot pink cheeks.

"It tells me, Rei... that the Fates have dealt you wrong." Ami muttered, knowing that a hysterical Rei Hino was one Rei Hino she would love to believe never existed. Ami turned on her heel, her pajama pants swaying in the slight wind. "I'm going to go to bed, Rei-chan. If you want to go to sleep, just creep in anytime."

She went down the stairs to the main compartments, leaving Rei to wipe away the tears and hysterics that she had kept secret within her own heart. And now, it appeared, there was a leak.

–

_"YOU SHALL COME NO NEARER!"_

_ "MAMA!"_

_ The young girl watched as her mother almost completely disappeared in a wild array of flames, which began to move on and consume everything else that stood in its destructive path. The young girl with wide purple eyes tried once again to touch her mother, but the older woman would not have it. "Rei-chan! Rei-chan, leave now, before it gets you too!" _

_"No, mama! I can't leave you!" 'But then again, I thought no one could possibly leave you... and yet, Daddy did...'_

_ "Please Rei-chan! Please! You have so many other things to accomplish in this world! So many great things!"_

_ Young Rei looked straight into her mother's eyes, and saw the proud gleam that outshone the group of gathering tears fast approaching. She saw the ambition the young woman had for her young daughter, too young to have a full taste of life and its various other set entrees._

_ "But what about you, mama? You need to live too!"_

_ A sad smile enfolded, barely seen through the flames licking Hino Meiko's face. "I have a weak heart, honey. The fires were sent to me to rid me of my pain... precious guardians they are," she tilted her head to face the ceilings, now an earth brown, ready to send roof beams and tiles falling all around Mother and Daughter. And with tears she murmured, "I can no longer take the destructive heartache that I get from your Father... and, sooner or later... from you."_

_Young Rei's eyes widened, guilt for what she had not yet done gripping at her heart. And then the walls, the roof, and her very universe, based around her mother and only her mother, began to fall._

"Hino-san! Wake up!"

Rei suddenly felt the mental jerk it took to bring her back to the land of the living, and noticed it took a moment for her physical being a few moments longer to join her conscious mind. She stared in bemusement as she found that Dr. Mizuno, Ami's mother, hovered over her. "What? Where am I?"

The words falling rather groggily and clumsily seemed to do the trick for the worried doctor. Chidori smiled down at her daughter's young friend, and asked, "A rather odd place to spend your night, isn't it?"

A sudden gust of wind suddenly swept over Rei's barely covered form, sent, it seemed, to justify the young mother's words. Rei shivered slightly in her red tank top, her teeth making a beat of their own through their clattering. In amazement, she gathered her bearings and noticed that she was still on the rooftop where, last night, her only lullaby was her off-tempo sobs. Chidori smiled sympathetically at the teenager and gave the young girl a turn in wearing her long white coat that was uniform for Tokyo Med. Employees. For once, Rei did not give a blunt refusal to the favor.

"I always come up here every morning after night shifts... the air revitalizes me, you know?"

Rei nodded, but felt she couldn't completely relate to the medical expert's favoring of the chilly breeze. Last night, when the very air had been humid, it had seemed a comfort. Now it seemed a menace, a rather bitter reminder that she had spent her night on a rooftop of some foreign building, and not in a warm bed of her own in her father's house. Not cradled in her own mother's arms, being soothed and told that there was nothing to fear. But in this reality, this true one, she had everything to fear.

And she was truly alone, in the deepest and most shallow sense.

Why this only occurred to her right then, she did not know. Nor did she want to find out.

"I should be going now. I have to get to school."

Chidori smiled at the girl a final time and nodded. "Ah. Yes. Must always be on time for one's education."

Rei nodded and allowed a half smile to be sent in return. She glanced at the woman with the cropped aqua hair, and noted the similarities between mother and daughter. Both valued intelligence above all else... but what did this woman think of the man who had made such an abrupt exit from her life? Did she have the same view point as Ami had, thinking it had been the gained benefit of both sides for a father and husband to be exiled from the Mizuno household? She wanted to ask the woman who stared at the high-rise view these things so badly, but felt it was not her place. As it wasn't her place to recklessly blow up at Ami the night before.

Rei shook her head. She gathered the loose thoughts to a corral at the back of her mind, and wandered downstairs. She was ready to..._ Embrace the day. For it may be the only one we have. _The thought was an almost random one, accompanying Rei as she made her trip down to the apartments. _'Where have I heard it before?'_

–

"And for this reason... we must embrace the day. For it may be the only one we have."

Rei's empty attention gauge filled up, and she stared at the smiling Aogiri-sensei from across the room. _That quote again! _Her arm shot up, and she waggled her fingers for attention. When nodded at to submit her question, Rei asked, "Who originally said that quote, Aogiri-sempai?"

Aogiri-sensei seemed amused by the curiosity thick on Rei's words. "Does your Father not tell you anything about his enthralling speeches, Hino-san? These very words were in the speech he gave just last week."

Murmurs began to buzz around the air following this new piece of information, meaningless twittle-twattle that Rei's ears suppressed. How ironic such a lovely quote with such a beautiful message behind it would fall from the lips of a man, his mouth dripping with words full of lies, lies, lies. _Even the devil can cite the scripture for his purpose._

_What trickery did you use to lure mom to her soul's destruction? Promises that you couldn't fulfill? Those whispered "I love you"s? She was so right about you. So right. She already had a weak heart, and you took your knife, glass blades of isolation and desertion, and slit it. You killed her. Murderer! MURDERER!_

"MURDERER!"

Rei stared at her fellow classmates, staring at their wide, surprised eyes with pure defiance. _Mock me! Go ahead! I don't have a "Daddy Dearest" who will chase the nightmares away! Because he is the very nightmare I fear! Let me wash away all of this anguish! Let me clean this dirty world... by fire!_

And that's the last thoughts that made their march through Rei's head, before the world tilted and she only knew black. The last mental words that made their engraving in her cracking heart before the tears fell, clashing against the inferno that erupted from her own cause, and her own unexplainable grief.

–

_This time the dream Rei had gained entrance to was indescribably beautiful–not the horrific scene of her mother dying painfully in the kitchen, so long ago. The land was lush, covered with beautiful blossoms, issuing their fragrances into the air. The grass that covered the valley was a thick carpet of the deepest green. The tops of the blades swayed in slight rhythm with the wind. Everything worked with one another to make life a painting, a still canvas where imperfection could not disturb the characters within._

_ Rei wandered through this land of solitude, a true smile playing on her face. She memorized the patterns of light weaving in between the tree branches_; _she cherished the feel of the silken fabric sliding against her skin. She glanced down at her outfit, noticing that it was the white dress her Father always gave her every year as a birthday present, alongside the beautiful Casablanca that decorated the hemming of the present box. Rei's eyes began to water, but she put a stop to the tear flow. "You get me expensive dresses, when all I wanted was..."_

_ The wish was left unheard as giggles of joy began to crowd the solemn air. Rei followed the trail of laughter and saw a sight that made her head spin. Over the next hill lay three figures on a checkered blanket. A family out for a simple Sunday picnic. Though, what caught and held Rei's disbelieving attention was the identities of the happy group. What she saw was an unrealistic picture of the immediate Hino family–Koichi, Meiko, and a ten year old Rei._

_ "Here's to our lovely Rei! A young lady growing up so fast!" Koichi crowed happily, lifting a soda in a maneuver to suggest that a "cheers" take place. _

_ Meiko smiled the gentle smile she had been known for before her demise. Now, however, it seemed the frailty that had accompanied the expression of happiness before had now disappeared. Instead, she looked healthy, and glowed with this boast. "Yes! To our Rei! The one and only light of our life!"_

_ Little Rei laughed, grinning the happy grin of one who had everything. Mom. Dad. Family..._

_ Rei's purple eyes flickered, but not in an annoyed sense. They flickered to show weakness._

_ Love. That's what this dream Rei had. That's what made her so different, so special. Her counterpart, the older, real Rei, had none of these qualities, and was left out in the cold to experience the trials of the difficult life she led, that this girl-child, this imaginary Rei, would never be subjected to._

_ "Oh Mama! Oh Papa! I love you both!"_

_ Rei's gaze flitted back towards the happy scene that was tearing oh-so viciously at her heart. The parents stared fondly at their child, and then stared at each other, eyeing the other with a meaningful, loving gaze. _

_ "And, my Dear, we'll always love you. We'll always love each other. We'll always be together. Promise."_

_ The expression was said by someone Rei would have expected to be her father, but instead, the false promises came from the one person that had always been truthful with Rei, always working so hard to make Rei's life better, whether or not riches were a factor..._ _her mother._

_ "No, Mama," the real Rei muttered, "don't you start to lie to me too. Daddy does enough of that already." The voice emitted was a weak one, so childish and small. So defenseless. So without hope._

_Rei felt a sudden pain well up within her chest. 'This fate... it's so ugly, so grotesque. Do you tease me with a glimpse of what could have been...? Or do you show me what never could be, despite the course of action taken? Now this, you clueless dream-sender... this is my ultimate nightmare.'_

_ 'Put yourself in a proper frame of mind, Senshi Mars.'_

_ Rei grimaced, watching the family group chase each other, under the warm rays of the sun. 'Haven't you heard? I'm the senshi of anger, senshi of all things horrible. The senshi of sufferings. If you want someone in the right frame of mind, then go look for Ami. Even Usagi is a better candidate for sanity than I am.'_

_ 'Put yourself in a proper frame of mind, Senshi Mars. And understand.'_

_ 'Understand what...?' She nodded in a grim understanding; an acquired knowledge that she thought she had gained; a acknowledgment that she thought this disembodied voice wanted her to have. 'I understand that my number one birthday present, the only one that ever mattered,' little Rei tackled Koichi to the ground and they embraced, 'was you, dad. You were the only gift worth having_, _the only gift that was unattainable."_

_ 'Put yourself in a proper frame of mind, Senshi Mars. Understand the one thing that can save lives. Including your own, which seems to be alluding you, thus far.'_

_Rei provided no initial response to the voice without a proper form, and wandered to where she had come from, and collapsed upon the grass, its rough touch more gentle than any touch than she had yet to experience. _

_–_

"She's waking up! Oh, Rei-chan! I thought we had lost you for a minute!"

Rei felt the weight of someone collapse upon her body, and she laughed, unsure yet of where she was... and in what 'frame of mind'.

She stared into the probing eyes of Ami and Makoto, both faces plastered with happy grins. And she found, that the girl who had collapsed on top of her in fit of sobs, was Usagi.

"Ugh... Odango Atama? You mind getting off?"

"Oh, sorry..." the blonde released the brunette from her choke-hold embrace, and smiled a teary half-smile at her friend. Rei smirked, wanting to set free that worry that inhabited the senshi leader's soul. "Gee, how many donuts have you consumed in the last twenty-four hours, ya pig? Felt like five hundred, at the very least!"

Ami and Makoto laughed at their friend's selection of humor, and laughed even harder with Usagi's usual red face reaction. "Rei–even when you're supposed to be weak from being in a coma, you're as big a jerk as ever!"

The Shinto's eyes went wide, and she quickly asked, "How long have I been out?"

"Two days."

The shrine maiden surveyed her current quarters and saw the white-bleached walls, a bit sullied with unidentifiable yellow, surrounding her. She noticed the bed spread, so much itchier than her own at home, crowded around her body.

And she saw the cake in the corner, marked "Happy Awakening, Rei-Chan!", no doubt baked by Makoto, and she still had no idea what predicament led her to lying in a hospital bed.

"Why am I here? What happened?"

Makoto patted Rei on her shoulder. "Well, as the story goes, Rei-chan... you kind of, freaked out, I guess? In class, and the room... it burst into flames."

Even with the amazon's reassuring touch, Rei felt panic settling in. Fire? Did it come from... "Did I cause the fire?"

Ami sighed, and knew there was no other option than to be blunt and honest, "Well, more than likely. There was no source of gas in the room, and, besides your school is well ventilated. No one had matches or anything that would start a blaze like that. And your powers, after all pyro-kinesis–"

"Don't even worry about it, Rei! Just last week, I almost started a fire of my own with my lightening powers. You just gotta learn how to control your powers when you get passionate, I guess. We'll all learn together."

Rei nodded in a blatant understanding, and then asked, worrying about the answer most, "Was anyone injured?"

Usagi shook her head. "Nope. You're the worst casualty, babe."

The black-haired girl let out a sight of relief, assuming the worst was over. She continued in this delusion, until Usagi concluded, "We should go now, Rei. Your dad's outside waiting for you–he's really worried you know."

Rei's violet eyes went wide, inhaling the fatal reality of the situation. She stared as her trio of well-wishers and friends wandered out the door. Between all of the farewells and hugs, Ami was the last to go. In their brief moment of privacy, Rei stared at Ami, and mumbled, "I'm sorry, Ami. For what I said that night."

Ami shook her head. "Don't be sorry. Otherwise, you'd just be apologizing for being human. We hurt, we bleed, Rei-chan. It's as simple as that." she shot her friend a final smile before exiting the door, nodding that everything was fine and complacent between them once again. 

And then, he entered. With his business suit, the man looked like he was ready to deliver a speech at another one of his press conferences. This man of so many words, so comfortable in front of Japanese and over-seas "big wigs", would always be so apprehensive to visit his own daughter, barely giving her a few syllables. Rei turned around, feeling pain well up once again in her chest, knowing her dream Father would never be resurrected.

_You are not to cry, young one. This is your father, and you shall face him as his daughter._

Rei blinked. _'That voice again. Who are you?'_

Koichi Hino cleared his throat, a basic action to execute order in a busy board room. But he was not in a board room, he was in his estranged daughter's hospital room. He would not discuss politics, he would have to discuss where their non-existent family stood from here. This point where one wrong stutter step could send them veering off the very edge.

"Rei..."

T.A.'s number one student, supposedly turned its number one arsonist, held up a hand to halt the vain, prepared words that would fall from her father's lips. "No, Dad. What you have to say can wait. I've waited for so long, it's only appropriate that I go first."

Obviously, Koichi didn't expect this from his offspring. He leaned back in his chair, his mahogany eyes flashing. "Fine. Go ahead."

After all of the years Rei waited to gather up the courage and perfect words to yell at her father with, her mind seemed void of all the witty, sardonic remarks she had been renowned for distributing without end of supply around town. She allowed silence to speak on her behalf for a while, as she gathered all of the painful memories that had gushed so painfully from all the wounds she had thought had faded into mere scars long ago. And yet, here she was, learning the truth all over again...

"Rei, would you please say what you have to say? My car's waiting for me outside, and–"

"So work _really_ _does_ come first for you."

Silence.

"You know, when I was little, Mom and I would always fool around in the kitchen during the day, making so many treats, so that we could surprise you once you came home," she breathed in here, allowing the welling tears to retract. "But, you never did." __

_ 'I'm sorry our family wasn't good enough for you...'_

"I had work, Rei! I had to make money for the family, for you guys–"

The hand went up again, silencing Koichi. "Please don't interrupt with your petty excuses just yet. I'm not done... and we're so over do with this talk." She inhaled a breath of air, trying to calm herself, and restore order in this twisted, emotional trip she was forced to partake in. "Mom died because of her weak heart, that's true. But you–you helped in her death, dad–"

"Now wait one blasted minute! I did no such thing!"

_'Those lies again..._'

"BUT YOU DID, DAD! She loved you SO much, and yet you continued to ignore her pining! All she wanted was to be LOVED, by the man who, on her wedding day, promised to be faithful and loving 'till death do they part! BUT YOU LIED! AND YOU CONTINUE TO LIE!" the silence bore down on them. "You continue to lie. Both to her and to me."

Silence.

"You're nothing but a crook, an adulterer, a killer, and a deserter."

The insults bore down heavily on him, and yet he continued to remain silent. 

In a deadly hiss, Rei continued, "You left mom and me for a thick wad of cash. That's how it all started, right? You sold the love of a family for one thousand dollars. Hope it was worth it." Rei gripped at the blankets that had been tucked so neatly around her; but were now tousled from the rigid jerking she was doing. "You're a PIG, a freaking PIG! I don't EVER want to see you again! Maybe now I can actually enjoy my birthdays, instead of wasting them in your company!"

One final comment, and he swore he'd crack...

"With all of my soul, with all of my being, _I hate you._ And I hope in death, Mom did too."

And then the earth-shattering roar was released.

Rei looked across the room at her father in shock. There, in his place, stood the horrific image of a classic monster. The mutated limbs of the beast were a dirt-shade of brown. The new being had blood-red eyes, sending a deadly glare into Rei's own, fearful violet pupils. And in scattered, clustered groups across its skin, were tatters of a business suit; a mere remnant of the man who had stood there a few moments earlier; a few moments too late.

"Who are you?!"

The beast did not answer as it cackled and burst through Rei's upper story window, ready to gather, Rei knew, energy for its new masters, the Negaverse. _You'd do anything for them now, right? How ironic... when you wouldn't lift one finger for your own family._

_'Now is not the time for your sarcasm, Senshi Mars. Go now, and unleash the final truth!'_

"No idea what you're talking about," Rei muttered, staring blankly at the white-bleached walls of her room, "but it's worth a try. MARS STAR POWER–MAKE-UP!"

And a red clad soldieress stood in Rei Hino's wake. She jumped from the ledge, making her way through the air where broken glass and broken dreams had just passed through. Ironically enough, she passed through the air, newly transformed as her Father's savior.

She landed safely with her heels in tow, on the hospital lawn. Familiar cries of panic, a beacon to show the Sailor Senshi where the trouble dwelled, arose through the air. Mars dashed around the corner to where the infirmary was located, and passed by dozens of screeching civilians. _'Calm down–I'll take care of this!'_

Her Father, or rather the monster, was consuming energy pulsations by the truck load. _'Even as a monster, you toil so hard to make people's lives a living hell, don't you?'_

She sighed._ Time for the usual introduction._

"Yo BEEFHEAD!"

The monster turned around, releasing a victim from its grip. He sensed the higher energy readings emitting from this newcomer, burning with so much passion and fervor. And he knew, she would be the catch the masters back at home would be interested in.

Mars almost stumbled as her mind projected her Father's calm face over the monster's own. She shook her head. _No, this monster has eaten up the last of the obnoxious man I know. He needs to be purified._

"Why don't you feast on THIS?! MARS FIRE.... SURROUND!"

The power unleashed sent a blaze racing past the trees and other plant life, leaving them unaffected. It, instead, made its mark, engraving a brand of pure rage into its dark skin.

The monster howled in pain and scowled at the soldier. And, to answer the call of distress, a figure began to materialize beside the beast, halting the oncoming onslaught the monster had been ready to give. And the figure wore a smirk, and answered to the chirp of Zoicite.

_'He did this?!_ _So like him to prey on people like my father..._ _without even knowing it_.'

"Well, well. Sailor Mars, we meet again," the general commented, always on duty to stating the obvious, "and I see you've met my precious pet over here."

"You're a monster yourself, Zoicite! Creating that beast of your's!"

Zoicite grinned. "But that's the beauty of it. I didn't create it. This lovable critter is the first in a new kind of Negaverse droid. One that emerges from a human through the power of hate." he nodded, raising an eyebrow, "you soldiers have your witless 'power of love', but we have something far more powerful in the works here."

Mars seemed to pale at the string of words. _'Hate? If it's powered by hate, then...'_

"I've really got to find the person who activated my creature's true potential. I need to thank them for their splendid tapestry of negativity."

_'My pain created a monster.'_

"Now, Durgo! I'm going to leave you on some urgent business... so I'm counting on you. Get rid of this Sailor Failure!"

_'I deserve to die for what I've done.'_

A war cry pierced the air, and Mars felt the sharp pain of a fist entering, then rebounding, off of her stomach. She tried to get up, but stumbled back from the force of the blow. She let out a low cry, pleading for the pain to stop. 

Images filtered through her mind, as she allowed the beast to continue its pummeling. She thought back to those lonely nights when she had tried to muffle the sobs racking her body. When she had cried from those nightmares, and reached out to touch two ghostly figures that were never really there. She recalled the pain that had consumed her, as her fellow students passed by her through the halls, blabbering about the latest family trip. Worse was when they complained. They continued to sputter contentious words of nonsensical hate, cursing their parents for their latest disciplinary action. _'At least they're there for you,'_ she had thought bitterly, ready to slap them for every strewn negative bit.

The pain was intensifying, and Mars limply allowed it all to continue. _'Let me die by your hand, Daddy. Maybe this is what Mom would have wanted. We'll have died in the same fashion, we'll both leave this earth from the pain you cause us.'_

The monster raised a fist, ready to shoot straight into Mars's skull, ending her short term on earth. And Rei, shone through her Mars persona, smiled weakly, suppressing the grunts of undeniable pain: and reached out a gloved hand to touch Durgo's face. She had gone through a wild ride since her birthday a few days back. Some part of her suddenly understood what it meant to love. 'An intense feeling of deep affection.' __

_'Aren't I all about intensity?'_

The intense feelings she had been forced to encounter and experience over the course of a few days had been as strange as it was enlightening. She had been angry at one point, then sad and tearful the next. But now, she felt a sudden compassion, as her limp, physical being ready to give up on her. _'On the brink of death, all things became clear.'_

_'REVEAL THE FINAL TRUTH!'_

And, of her own accord, not because of an order or demand, Rei sputtered for a final breath and whispered, "I love you, Dad."

And the blinding white light made it all worth while.

–

"Rei... wake up, my dear... wake up..."

Rei became revitalized, as did the major headache that accompanied her. "Ugh... where am I?"

She stared at her surroundings, and saw... nothing. Nothing was an odd word to use as a description, but quite possibly the most accurate. Everywhere around her, she saw something, and that was... nothing. Rei felt weird as her feet didn't make contact with the floor, feeling the strange sensation of floating.

"Why can't I ever wake up normally, nowadays? Like in my room, to the annoying beeping of my alarm clock. Not to some mysterious voice with no body."

"All right. If it is someone with a physical being you wish to talk to, then it is what you shall have."

Rei glanced warily as a form started to materialize before her, reminding her of an old Star Trek scene. "Beam me up, Scotty," she muttered, the cliche rolling over her tongue like oil. _Is this death? Is this unearthly void the place I shall spend the rest of eternity?_

"No, Rei. We're in your mind right now. A place where anything and everything defies time."

The almost completely shown figure called up a screen, and the frozen image of a beaten-down Sailor Mars made its debut, a brown fist mere inches away from her face. The Mars on the transparent screen looked different from the soldier Mars Rei had worked so hard to establish, Rei spotted the tears rolling down her own image's pink cheeks. _Concise, wasting no time. Cruel and ruthless against all enemies._

"But, Rei, ask your self one thing. This monster you're fighting. Is he truly your enemy?"

"..."

"The answer, then, is no. This is your father, trapped in a monster's skin, and... you revealed the final truth as I had asked. Very good."

Rei waved aside the airy voice, and snapped, "If I do something, it's because I wanted to, not because some ominous voice commands it so."

The voice suddenly laughed, a familiar bell-like laugh that made the brunette look up suddenly. And, as her suspicions were confirmed, she stared at the familiar and welcoming face of her late mother, as elegant as ever. "That's how you're just like your father, my Rei. Always so stubborn, and acting on your own will, not on the will of others."

"M-Mama! You were that..."

"That voice? Yes. I tried to make you see something that you were blind to. That deep-rooted love that can never be erased from your heart." The woman tilted her head to the side, her deep purple eyes twinkling. "It was driving me absolutely _crazy_, not being able to completely help you and your father."

_"I can no longer take the destructive heartache that I get from your Father... and, sooner or later... from you."_ The words flitted in Rei's mind momentarily, and then she hung her head in shame, seeing the fulfillment of the prophecy through. "So I _have_ hurt you."

A cool hand clutched at Rei's chin. "You didn't mean to, Sweetheart."

"But I DID, and that's what matters."

"I still love you," the words were whispered in such a sweet, sincere tone of voice, that they could be nothing but true. They seemed to plaster the cracks and crevices that had been ready to consume the Martian princess. Rei smiled at her mother, her sole care-giver. "Thank you, Mom."

The two women smiled at each other right then. Smiles full of hope and encouragement. "Rei... now you know what you must do."

The answer was a ready one. "Purify... like what happened to you during the fire back then?"

Meiko seemed hesitant on revealing the information, in fear of causing the unneeded guilt of her child. She parted her lips to speak, but...

"Mom. I understand. Those fire spirits... they were a sign of my awakening. My emergence," a soldier's eyes flashed, and a faint shadow of the girl Rei had been, and the woman she would become, suddenly gleamed. "But you felt like you had to defend me. And you left me."

Meiko shook her head. "Never, Rei. Never. I will never leave your side. I will guide ad protect you, always." she paused, gently rapping her fingers across Rei's skull, and allowed a slender finger to point at Rei's heart. "Because I'll always be here. Call me, and I'll answer." she smiled, so gently, but filled with such strength, "and _I'll_ be the one chasing away your nightmares."

Rei reached out a hand, but found that they only wrapped around thin air. With tears of joy, she cried, "Goodbye Mom! I love you!" And watched as her dreams faded away, but not into nothingness. She felt a new warmth in her heart, and knew for a once, all the promises she heard were true.

–

Mars awoke to the frozen setting that had been shown to her, and she felt the liquid that had cascaded down her cheeks. At the possible moment, she rolled to her left, feeling the desire of fighting, the conviction of a warrior, once again bubbling within her.

She stared at the uproarious monster in front of her, and knew that she had no choice. She summoned a few spell papers and yelled, "Aku Ryo Tai San!" The papers, imprinted with various curses, stuck to the monster's form, making a sharp cry of pain come from the monster's ghastly mouth.

"NOW! BE CLEANSED BY THE FIRE! MARS FIREBIRD: STRIKE!"

A huge bird, completely made of the passionate flames that made up the girl named Rei Hino, came thundering down from the heavens. In a swift movement, it tackled down the monster, feeding on its outside core. And after the attack power had gone, there lay on the smoldering ground, as vulnerable as Rei had somehow felt, Koichi Hino.

She regarded the man who she had pegged as the source of all her inner turmoil over the past few years, and her lips creased into a shadowed half-smile. "I've just saved you, Dad," she whispered to the new crisp wind, "and now, I can work on patching that hole in my heart you've left me to deal with."

She smiled a final time and fled, hearing the voices increasing in volume as more people came to help the fallen.

And in a flurry of flames, Rei Hino disappeared.

–

"And now, this cherished soul can rest in heaven with his maker..."

Faces in the crowd formed expressions of remorse and loss, but among all of these faces, making such unneeded spectacles, the most distinguishable was the elegant face of a girl who looked no older than nineteen or twenty. Her carefully carved facial features showed no emotion as she surveyed the coffin up front, already closed and ready for burial.

The whole affair took place atop a low-rising hill somewhere in Kobe, Koichi Hino's hometown. The deceased politician was the cause for the whole occasion, the cause for all of these melancholy faces. And Rei Hino, his sole daughter, now sat among them, the fatherly-daughterly bond they barely had, pulling her to what she considered an obligation.

"All may now approach for one final goodbye."

The whole congregation moved simultaneously, leaving only one visitor sitting. Rei stubbornly awaited the moment when she would have a turn to send her goodbye in the luxury of privacy.

A few minutes past, and the crowd began to thin out, leaving one more mourner up by the coffin, then finally... none.

The former daughter of Koichi Hino finally got up and approached the closed casket. She didn't need the coffin open to see what the face of Koichi Hino now looked like. It was surely creased into a smile, having had all the pleasures to enjoy, be they sinful or otherwise, in this life.

"Poison... what a way to go, Dad." The perpetrator, the one who had inserted the intoxicating chemical in Koichi's beverage that night had been caught. Unsurprisingly, a political opponent of the late Hino male. But somehow, Rei knew that Koichi wasn't exactly upset of his sudden ascension from this life. He had been in the height, the very prime, of his political career. Go while your king, was one goal the government official had certainly fulfilled.

"Hey... Rei-chan?"

Rei turned whisked around and found one of her best friends, Usagi, standing there. "Yes?"

"We're in the car waiting for you. Just meet us there once you're done, 'kay?"

"'Kay."

The blonde left, walking down the aisle, secretly wishing that the cuts in Rei's heart would heal. But, what she didn't know, was that the major ones already had. That day at the hospital, when Rei had to attack the very one who had helped give her life, life had made a drastic turn for the Shinto.

Rei smiled, feeling the support of her friends, her true family smother her. The nine friends she had befriended and fought alongside with, these past four years. For justice, for love, and... for peace of mind.

She looked at the shining black cover of the container that held her father's body and murmured, "Dad–our final encounter all those years ago..." she paused to think back to the four father-free birthdays she had, "it's what granted me peace of mind. Thank you for that."

The wind rustled her hair, the smell of the new breeze sending her nostalgia. Of a time that was, and yet never could be. A time where Rei Hino told her dad "I hate you!" when she was trying to convey the amount of heartache she had to carry around with her. And a time, so fabled, yet so comforting to fantasize about, when Rei could hug her dad, and whisper, "I love you, Daddy."

And she said these words now, so natural, though unspoken for so long: "I love you, Daddy."

And then the world, Rei's world, so consumed with the burning desire for a flame of passion, seemed right once more.

–

_May that flame of passion in you, and in this world, never be lost... Ja._

Author's [Concluding] Notes: Hope you enjoyed this story somewhat. :) E-mail me at or leave a review! 'Till next time!


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